Joy Abdullah, Brand Strategist, has more than 20 years of experience across
ASEAN & the Indian sub-continent in developing and managing national, regional
and international brands in a wide variety of industries covering Islamic
Financial services, tourism, B2b Halal, telecommunications, beverages, real
estate, tobacco, hospitality and healthcare.

An organization is a non-physical entity that is brought to life through its
people. This is even more latent in the Islamic banking industry as we know it
today. Establishing a culture comes through those people understanding,
accepting and developing ownership of the values in order to project that
culture and thereby create a brand identity for the organization. (refer to the
article "brand and the employee—importance of corporate culture" -
see reference
link). Such values are further crystallized where an entity follows Shariah
principles.

Employees are one of the main stakeholders of any brand yet strangely enough
many organizations fail to acknowledge the importance of 'corporate culture' in
brand development and the employees role in this effort. Islamic finance
institutions provide a unique chance to combine them. An organisation having
strong ethics, common or shared goals and an individual development base,
inspires the employee to strive for delivering to the best of his/her abilities.
This comes about because the employee 'likes' going to work every day, 'learns'
and is 'appreciated' and that makes the employee imbibe the brand values (which
comes about from the corporate culture) and project it. Strong teamwork is
visible. Positivity is visible. And success of individual brand activities
occurs.

Employees are the first available resources for any company in pursuit of
establishing a good corporate culture leading to having a profitable brand. Yet,
surprisingly this is one area, where organizations spend the least amount of
time. Today, companies are battling it out across various parameters to etch an
identity for their brands and yet many organisations do not have in place any
internal brand engagement programs. Programs that link having a strong corporate
culture to the brand experience projected by the organization. At the end of the
day, a positive brand experience endures the consumer with the brand thereby
creating loyalty. Loyalty based on having trust and this leads to the repeat
transactions which in turn provides profits to the organization. In order to get
to this stage, in today’s business world, it is critical for organizations to
utilize their key resource—staff! (see reference link). In this context it seems
that human capital in Islamic finance might be underutilized and perhaps even
unappreciated.

So how do we develop and implement a corporate culture that brings tangible
benefits to the organization?

It is possible and do-able, provided that senior management finds value in it
and believes in it (see reference link). CSR is not an external effort, it is an
internal exercise as well.

How can this be done :

Step 1: identify the platform on which the culture would be based. The ethics
and social norms it would want to promote and foster amongst all its
stakeholders. Based on this ethical platform determine the values that the
corporate brand should project/uphold.

Step 2: Inform and internalise, through a planned series of interactive
workshops, these values to the employees by clearly linking them to their work
functions and relating back as to how, not projecting the same affects the brand
and in turn affects the bottom-line.

Step 3: Get the employees involved. Get them to put down, in their own words how
they would personalise ie project the values themselves and thereby project the
culture internally and externally. (At this point also identify and have a few
"champions" ie leaders who would in a way “police” the cultural implementation.)

Step 4: Ensure measurement. A measurable, performance indicator has to be in
place which should be clearly explained to the employee and ensured that
comprehension is there ie: the employee should be clear that his/her performance
(in this area) will affect the company overall and therefore there is direct
accountability.

Having initiated the program, keeping momentum is extremely important. This is
where a structured internal communications program aimed at regularly
highlighting the employee achievements, undertakings and organizational news are
communicated. What this does is:

A) It informs the organisation as to who’s championing the specific activities

B) It motivates the competitive spirit within divisions and dept.’s to do their
bit and get their names on the "communication roster"

On the whole, the entire staff moves in one, planned direction, thereby
projecting the desired behaviour. This benefits the brand as all stakeholders
receive a “positive face” of the brand. Which in turn strengthens their
relationship with the brand and leads to increasing revenue.

The brand engagement begins right at the interview stage. The first interaction
of a potential talent with the brand. Both have to impress/woo each other. The
days of just a 'fitting' of skills is long past. Today, the potential employee
needs to be evaluated in terms of a 'cultural fit' ie: behaviour and attitude.
Both during work hours and out of it as a lot of time is spent in social context
between colleagues and with other stakeholders including clients. The importance
of knowing if the potential employee fits in with the corporate values is
critical in ensuring success of the role (the employee will handle) resulting in
a positive outcome for the brand.

Bringing this into an Islamic value-based organisation, makes the 'fit' of the
employee to the corporate values even more important and critical. Existing and
potential talent, whose individual value system are aligned to the
organisation’s core values will be better placed through being comfortable (as
the career and personal growth match is mapped) ie: a clear career direction is
provided. This would lead to a positive projection of the individual’s work
output as there would be a perceived value of 'making a difference/contributing'
which in turn would turn uo the productivity and deliverable quality of the
brand (to its clients/stakeholders). This rings true across Islamic finance
institutions and especially if one considers the continuous streams of young
(often Muslim) professionals seeking to engage it and make a difference.

This all goes back to a core organisational value of transparency - a concept
that is strongly intertwined in Shariah principles. Transparency of direct
communication to staff of organizational goals, feedback, expectations of the
organization from its staff and vice-versa. Such a transparent culture will
foster clarity of role and deliverables and most importantly, in projection of
the brand and its key message.

A brand experience is the sum total experience one has with an entity and the
perception one has of that entity. One of the key areas where this experience is
strengthened (or destroyed) is the way the brand’s ecosystem (its consumers,
partners, vendors) perceive the employees of the brand they interact with. And
this has far greater a impact than the advertising of the brand (see reference
link).

Current corporate cultures are still largely governed by ‘command-and-control'
practices that alienate many of today’s employees. Where as employees are (and
should be) the key focal point for a brand in developing its relationships. By
putting employees at the center of the brand experience thus changes the way
senior management think about their organisational culture. In turn this culture
then creates rewarding employee experiences that in turn translate into positive
and enduring customer experiences.

Yet, in-spite of all the talk of ‘people are our main asset’, the road to
'employee-service-profit chain' success is mired in obstacles. If employees are
distrusting and alienated from their organisations, what are the chances that
they will provide customers and colleagues alike with a positive brand
experience? And a positive experience is a must in order to have a
repeat-sale/usage of the brand and, more importantly, to get referrals. Often
times we talk about the image of Islamic banking from the outside world, but
here we must also realize that the image from the inside is as important.

So how do we get employees to build trust with the brand and be engaged and
involved with the organisation?

Engagement programs are just that—ie: they provide a one-way street of
communication. Commanding what should be the perceived brand image
communication. Providing content to gain a buy-in. But not really providing any
means of engagement or involvement from the employee.

Involvement is the critical element. Intuitively we all understand what
involvement is and how powerful a force it can be. When we are told to do
something, we do it and then tend to forget about it. But when we are involved
in something, we tend to be possessive and own it on an emotive level. And when
emotion comes into play, passion is there, thereby enabling a strong, positive
experience to take place, leading to forming trust. When trust grows,
relationships are strengthened leading to repeat usage and referrals. It is no
surprise that trust (amanah) is much highlighted in Islamic baking circles, but
is it truly being nurtured?

When an organisation is moving into re-branding itself or it has merged with
another entity and a new entity is formed, managing the cultural change becomes
a top priority and a must in order to ensure that the end result of a positive
brand experience is achieved. In order to be successful in this, it’s critical
to have the employees’ involvement. And this involvement requires that a strong
group process is in place. A process where the meetings and interactions take on
a deeper meaning than just to meet in order to agree to the content of the
meeting. A deeper meaning where one focuses more on honest conversation, high
involvement and participation leading to strong, high trust relationships. All
simple, effective and yet in a corporate set up, at times, hard to do elements.

Once a strong group process is in place leading to strong relationships based on
individual involvement, implementing the rest of the plan in terms of content
and communication channels and programs, is not hard, as each independent
employee, driving those functions, believe and own it. As a result of which,
each interaction is on a more personal, emotive and honest platform. All of
which lead to having a positive brand experience output.

A strong corporate culture leading to a robust brand identity can be extremely
advantageous to any organization in today’s competitive market place (across
categories) and becomes a key differentiator to consumers for wanting to choose
and remain with a particular brand vis-à-vis the competition. This is even more
critical and can provide even greater added value for Islamic finance
institutions. However, in order to achieve this firms will need to take the
pains of involving & engaging their employees in a planned manner - positively
worth their time and monetary investment.

Your feedback and comments are very important to us, please feel free to contact
the author via email.